NextG Wireless Lab
NextG Wireless Lab@NC STATE
NextG Wireless Lab (NextG Lab@NC State) is a leading research group specializing in cutting-edge exploration of next-generation wireless communications and networking. Our research spans various critical areas including 5G and 6G cellular systems, Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN), wireless cybersecurity, AI/ML applications in wireless technologies, and dynamic spectrum sharing.
Key Research Areas at NextG Lab
5G/6G Wireless Networks
O-RAN architecture and xApps, rApps and μApps/dApps
O-RAN security, privacy and testing
AI and GenAI/LLMs for 5G/O-RAN networks
Spectrum sharing in FR3 bands/satellite bands
5G/NR positioning
Space/Non-terrestrial networks
Explore our current research projects here.
Lab Director: Vijay K Shah
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at North Carolina State University
3066 Engineering Building II
890 Oval Drive, Raleigh, NC 27606
vijay.shah@ncsu.edu
Dr. Shah is currently an Assistant Professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at North Carolina State University. He heads the NextG Wireless Lab@NC State, dedicated to advancing the forefront of wireless communication and network technologies beyond current generations. Prior to joining NC State, he was an Assistant Professor in the Cybersecurity Engineering Department at George Mason University and Research Assistant Professor in the Bradley Department of ECE at Virginia Tech from 2021 - 2024 and 2019 - 2021, respectively.
Dr. Shah's research group is generously supported by several R&D projects funded by the NSF, NIST and NTIA.
Meet the NextG Lab Team here.
Recent News
[12/2024] One paper on Satellite Networks accepted to IEEE INFOCOM 2025.
[09/2024] SPARC is accepted to ACM CoNEXT 2024.
[09/2024] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve on the TPC for IEEE PerCom 2025.
[09/2024] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve as the Demo/Poster Chair for ACM WiSec 2025.
[09/2024] Zero-trust RIC paper is accepted to IEEE CCNC 2025. [ArXiv]
[09/2024] ORAN-Bench-13K is accepted to IEEE CCNC 2025. [ArXiv]
[09/2024] 5G Positioning paper is accepted to ACM WiNTECH 2024. [Arxiv]
[09/2024] WANDA paper is accepted to ACM MobiCom Workshop 2024.
[09/2024] SPARC demo is accepted as a demo paper to ACM MobiCom Workshop 2024.
[07/2024] NextG Lab has moved to the ECE department at NC State effective July 1, 2024.
[07/2024] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve on the TPC for IEEE INFOCOM 2025.
[07/2024] Dr. Shah has been invite to serve as the Demo/Poster co-chair for ACM WiNTECH 2024.
[06/2024] Congratulations to Ta-seen and Azuka for receiving the prestigious NSF student travel grant to attend IEEE DySPAN 2024.
[06/2024] Our project "M2- NET: An Integrated Access and Backhaul Millimeter-wave Wireless Network for Campus Connectivity and Research" has been funded by the NSF. [Abstract]
[03/2024] Our paper "Milli-O-RAN: A Flexible, Reconfigurable O-RAN enabled mmWave Network Testbed" has been accepted to IEEE DySPAN Posters and Demos 2024. [Link]
[03/2024] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve as the track chair for IEEE MILCOM 2024.
[02/2024] Azuka will be joining InterDigital Inc. for Summer internship 2024. Congratulations Azuka!
[02/2024] My third-year PhD student, Ta-seen Niloy has been awarded the "May La Due Bishop Book Fund" for academic excellence. Congratulations Ta-seen!
[02/2024] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve as the track chair for IEEE CCNC 2025.
[02/2024] Three papers (two on 12 GHz spectrum sharing [ASCENT] [CAT3S] and one on [O-RAN privacy]) are accepted to IEEE DySPAN 2024.
[01/2024] Our project "A Holistic Cybersecurity Testing Framework for 5G Radio Access Networks" has been awarded by NTIA under Wireless Innovation Fund.
[01/2024] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve on the TPC for IEEE MASS 2024.
[01/2024] Dr. Shah gave a talk entitled "Transforming Cellular Landscape: Open RAN, AI Convergence, and the Journey towards 6G" to ITU FG-AN Build-a-thon 2024 Workshop 5.0.
More News
2023
[12/23] Our paper on "System-level Analysis of Adversarial Attacks and Defenses on Intelligence in O-RAN based Cellular Networks" has been accepted to ACM WiSec 2024. [Preprint]
[12/23] Our project "Fingerprinting Technology for Enhancing 5G/NextG O-RAN Supply Chain Risk Management" has been awarded by CCI Northern Virginia Node under the program "Research in Supply Chain Risk Management".
[12/23] Dr. Shah invited to serve on the TPC for MobiHoc 2024.
[11/23] Our project "AI-Enabled Efficient Testing and Evaluation for RU, DU, and CU Components of 5G Radio Access Networks" has been awarded by NTIA under Wireless Innovation Fund.
[11/23] Our "FEMO-CLOUD" project has been recognized with honorable mention by O-RAN Alliance Next Generation Research Group (nGRG).
[11/23] Our demo paper "Demonstration of Closed Loop AI-Driven RAN Controllers Using O-RAN SDR Testbed" was awarded the best demo paper at IEEE MILCOM 2023. [Paper]
[10/23] Our paper on "Adaptive RRI Selection Algorithms for Improved Cooperative Awareness in Decentralized NR-V2X" has been accepted to IEEE Access.
[10/23] Our NIST project "Assisting Firefighters with 5G Drones" was featured in the GMU College of Engineering and Computing Annual Report 2023. [link]
[09/23] Open AI Cellular (OAIC) Platform version 2.0 is out! It has some new key capabilities (i) 5G support, (ii) O-RAN OSC Near-RT RIC and Non-RT RIC, (iii) Lightweight E2 Implementation, (iv) Sample ML-driven xApp, and (v) ZMQ with multiple UE support. If interested, check out our OAIC website for latest updates: www.openaicellular.org.
[09/23] Our demo paper on "Demonstration of Closed Loop AI-Driven RAN Controllers Using O-RAN SDR Testbed" has been accepted to IEEE MILCOM Demos 2023.
[09/23] Our paper on "Control Coordination in Inverter-based Microgrids using AoI-based 5G Schedulers" has been accepted to IET Smart Grid 2023.
[09/23] Our NSF SaTC proposal on "RIS Security" was awarded by National Science Foundation (NSF).
[09/23] My REU student, Nathan Stephenson and I presented a comprehensive tutorial on Open AI Cellular (OAIC), a 4G/5G O-RAN platform, at IEEE PIMRC 2023, Toronto, Canada.
[08/23] Our proposal on "Millimeter Wave IoT networks" was awarded the "CCI Fellows" seed grant.
[08/23] Our Open AI Cellular (OAIC) platform (based on SDRs) has featured National Instruments Wireless Research Customer Stories. Link: https://www.ni.com/en/forms/wireless-research-customer-stories.html
[08/23] BeamShaper paper has been accepted to IEEE MILCOM 2023.
[08/23] One paper on O-RAN Security has been accepted to IEEE GLOBECOM 2023.
[08/23] SenseORAN paper has been accepted to IEEE JSAC (SI on Open RAN).
[08/23] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve on the TPC for IEEE ICC 2024.
[07/23] NextG Lab@GMU is honored and excited to partner with Commonwealth Cyber Initiative (CCI) [Lead], Wireless@VT, and ODU on North American O-RAN Testing and Integration Center (OTIC) in Washington DC area. GMU CEC news article: https://cec.gmu.edu/news/2023-07/george-mason-university-improving-next-gen-wireless-networks
[07/23] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve as the Local Chair for IEEE DySPAN 2024.
[07/23] NextG Lab@GMU demonstrated a 5G positioning demo with sub-meter level accuracy at the 5x5 Public Safety Innovation Summit, San Diego, USA.
[07/23] Our paper on 12 GHz spectrum coexistence has been accepted to IEEE Wireless Communications Letters 2023.
[04/23] Sarik Dhungel has been awarded with a travel grant to attend the AERPAW community workshop 2023. Congratulations Sarik!
[04/23] Ta-seen and Nathan presented posters on "12 GHz spectrum sharing" and "O-RAN based spectrum sharing framework" at 2nd CCI symposium, Richmond, VA.
[03/23] 12 GHz spectrum sharing paper accepted to IEEE Communications Magazine 2023.
[03/23] Dr. Shah invited to serve on the TPC for WiseML 2023.
[03/23] Our CCRI proposal on "Space Networks" was awarded by National Science Foundation (NSF). [Abstract]
[02/23] Dr. Shah joins the Editorial Board of Computer Networks.
[02/23] Interference classification paper accepted to IEEE INFOCOM workshop on Deep Learning for Wireless Communications, Sensing, and Security (DeepWireless). [Preprint]
[01/23] Three posters (on 12 GHz spectrum sharing, O-RAN, and AI beamforming) accepted at CCI Symposium 2023.
[01/23] Dr. Shah gave a talk on "5G-IPS: 5G-based Indoor Positioning System for Emergency Responders in GPS-limited Indoor Scenarios", ICDCN workshop on Emergency Response Technologies and Services (EmeRTeS) 2023.
2022
[11/22] Dr. Shah gave a talk on "Enabling 5G/NextG Network with Open RAN Architectures" at Research Scholar Day at National Institute of Technology (NIT) Durgapur, India. Link: https://youtu.be/qlxwO5M23Sg
[11/22] O-RAN testing framework paper accepted to IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine, 2022.
[10/22] Our 5G positioning research was featured in Mason and other news portals.
Link: https://cec.gmu.edu/news/2022-10/firefighters-get-assist-5g-equipped-drones-developed-mason
[10/22] Dr. Shah invited to serve on the TPC for ACM MobiHoc 2023.
[08/22] DeepIA paper accepted to IEEE TNSE 2022.
[07/22] UAV backhauling paper accepted to IEEE TNSM 2022.
[06/22] UAV optimization paper accepted to IEEE IoT Journal 2021.
[06/22] Interference Suppression Survey paper accepted to IEEE Access.
[06/22] Our proposal on "5G-based Indoor Positioning System" was awarded by National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). [More info here]
[06/22] Dr. Shah gave a talk on Open AI Cellular (OAIC) at IEEE NextG Summit 2022. [Slides][Youtube]
[05/22] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve on the TPC for IEEE MILCOM 2022.
[05/22] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve on the TPC for IEEE COMSNETS 2022.
[03/22] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve on the TPC for IEEE SECON 2022.
[03/22] O-RAN paper accepted to IEEE Network Magazine.
[01/22] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve on the TPC for IEEE ICNP 2022.
[01/22] Dr. Shah has been invited to serve as one of the publicity chairs for IEEE SECON 2022.